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After several months of perfect public pregnant appearances the Duchess of Cambridge swept out of hospital just hours after delivering her infant daughter, looking flawless on all fronts. Hair, make-up, husband, other kid. Not a stitch out of place. Meanwhile in Subiaco, Renee Stockton and her husband were faced with the very real problem of a new baby daughter (born on the same day as the princess) who didn't match the name that had been chosen for her.

When Geoff Hutchison spoke with Renee this morning, she didn't sound too bothered that as a commoner she wasn't entitled to an entourage of stylists, she did, however, sound like a totally blissed out new mum. And she doesn't like the name Alice.

Peter Cundall recorded a selection of war poetry, he was moved to record them as they expressed "The horror, the brutality and the obscenity of war." Today he shared one of those poems with Geoff Hutchison.

We’ve seen Peter Cundall’s eyes light up over a great heap of “lovely compost”. His enthusiasm for gardening was beamed into our living rooms each week and while he might have retired from public life his passion still blazes. Cundall runs gardening classes for war veterans, he is a veteran of WWII and the Korean War. You get the feeling that the quiet, physical business of turning earth and nurturing growth have been medicinal for him, that he'd like to share the treatment.

“There’s not a day in my life that I don’t actually have a recollection, a vivid recollection, flash-backs if you like, of actually going into an assault and wondering what’s going on. You’re surrounded, you’re seeing your mates fall, gasping their lives away.”

When Geoff Hutchison thanked him for his potent reading of war poem, Aftermath by Sigfried Sassoon, he said “I’m not an actor, I’m just an old soldier.”

The Police Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan explained the difficulties in policing remote communities and said that while Premier Colin Barnett had been condemned for citing 39 cases of Aboriginal children with STIs, the reality is likely to be far worse. Mr O'Callaghan told Geoff Hutchison why those figures don't reflect the magnitude of the problem.

Beyond Right & Wrong: Stories of Justice and Forgiveness is a film by Lekha Singh which tells stories of people who have survived unimaginable horror.

Singh was in Rwanda when she saw a woman sharing a soda with the man who had hacked her five children to death. The film is her attempt to understand how anyone could arrive at such a place. It's a place that is not always described as forgiveness, but as compassion, empathy or understanding.

Jo Berry is the embodiment of all that. Her father, British politician Sir Anthony Berry, was killed in the Brighton Hotel bombings of 1984. IRA volunteer Patrick Magee planted the bomb that killed 5 people.

In spite of receiving 8 life sentences Magee was released after 14 years. A year later Jo Berry set out to meet him.

"I wanted to hear his story and see him as a human being, to see the man behind the label of terrorist. I was really curious."

Berry had met other members of the IRA and went to the meeting expecting to hear political justification which is indeed how the first hour of their meeting went. But;

"He changed, he opened up and became much more vulnerable and he began to see that he was guilty of demonising 'the other' and that he had killed a wonderful human being."

"I was really going there to listen ... it was purely to hear his story. I wanted to get beneath the rhetoric."

And it was that which disarmed Magee.

Some in this remarkable film speak of forgiveness, Jo Berry says she reached a point of "That deep knowing which I've had at moments that if I'd led his life would I have made the same choices? I could be his mother or his sister. There is a point where there is no more 'the other'... there is just someone who's had his own story."

George Megalogenis is one of this country’s best analysts of economics – he understands that which is dry and statistical and has an extraordinary ability to bring it to life – to explain how it relates and why it matters.

In his first foray into documentary making, George seeks to explore the factors behind our long period of expansion and prosperity - in the first episode of a new series “Making Australia Great : Our Longest Boom.”

In it he talks to the Prime Ministers of a post Whitlam world; asking only that they don’t use the opportunity to take pot shots at one another, but speak about the Australia in which they grew up.

In an upcoming episode George takes John Howard back to Canterbury Boy’s High in Sydney where the faces of 21st century Australia may be very different, but the aspirations much the same.

I put it to George today that however sustained Australia’s record of economic growth – it is now stretching into its 24th consecutive year – many of us appear grumpy with our political leaders.

George suggests the reason why we are so hard to please, is that politicians of more recent times have been throwing money at us to win our affection and now that money is not as plentiful, we’re resenting them for it.

Economics is often considered a “dismal science” but time in the company of George Megalogenis, may have you thinking differently.

I always find them a useful indication of where you’ve come from. A kind of annotation to where you’re headed as well.

I’ve now lived in Karratha for a week and four days, and I’m taking stock of my first impressions of the place.

When I first told people I was moving to Karratha from Broome, I got some bad first impressions.

People warned me about the heat, the ugly town site, the boredom.

I was determined to see the region with fresh eyes and ears. To not have any expectations.

What I’ve noticed about Karratha so far:

1. There are hills! It’s just a small part of what makes this piece of the country so stunning, but the hills stood out to me the most. They provide a sense of perspective, of grounding, and are fantastic landmarks in a new town.

2. People work hard here. In Broome I was used to a relatively quiet ride to work in the morning, with little traffic and the odd tourist or dog walker. Here, people are going to and from work at all hours of the day. People do long hours, even if they don’t work in the mining industry.

3. There are no yellow topped bins. I’m reminded every time I go to put an empty plastic milk bottle in the rubbish.

4. It feels like a city. It’s still growing into its new city boots, but Karratha feels exciting, and innovative, and ready to grow.

5. People in Karratha are ready to accept you for who you are. They are welcoming, and encouraging, and invite you to things.

I’m really looking forward to learning more about this region, and seeing how it changes and grows during my time here. For now, I hope I can keep these early impressions vivid in my memory.

Did you grow up with the mantra "listen to your Elders" or "Respect your Elders"?

For a myriad of reasons that moral value has diminished in our society. There's a particular chasm in the role that Aboriginal Elders play in their communities, which is linked the the loss of country, culture and connection, and so intrinsic to both the heirachy and sense of self.

31 Elders from across northern Australia (7 from the Kimberley) have voiced their concern about the high rate of suicide and self harm amongst Aboriginal youth.

Derby's Lorna Hudson is one of the Elders in the report who were asked for their thoughts on the cause and the solutions.

"Youth today are on the wrong track... there's no balance between Aboriginal culture and non-Aboriginal culture."

Now aged in her 70s, Lorna is frustrated by a top-down approach to managed Aboriginal health.

A former health worker herself, she wants more after hours services, especially for men and troubled youth, and she wants more Aboriginal people involved in either working for those services or implementing them.

Alan can just as often be found in his extensive Broome garden with a spade in hand, as he could with a laptop proofing his Earth Garden magazine.

He's been the Editor of the mag for 27 of its 42 year history, and in a precarious magazine world where titles are likely to fail within five years of opening, that's a good record.

As we sit on Alan's back porch looking out over his vegie garden, he marvels at how compost solves almost all garden problems, how it's commonplace to own chooks even in the city, and how children have rediscovered the original fast food is a homegrown cherry tomato.

For so many primary producers across Australia, off-farm income keeps them afloat, be it the job in town or diversifying into other industries.

A Kununurra couple thought they'd build three chalets for tourists on their 8 hectare block, which has 700 mangoes.

"Some years are better than others," says Vicky Biroac about her River Farm Road property.

The agricultural zone around Kununurra produces melons, sandalwood, mangoes, and plenty of vegetables. It's also Fruit Fly Free, a bonus for accessing markets, but a headache for authorities keeping the pests out of the Ord.

That biosecurity risk, of fruit fly and diseases that can devestate crops, was one of the main reasons the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley rejected the chalet plans.

The kids of Wyndham used to call him Grandpa Ted, to adults who might have been married by him he was called Pastor Ted, to his children he was "just Dad".

Roxanne Birch is thinking back on the remarkable life of her dad, Pastor Ted Birch, who was a big part of the Wyndham community.

(The photo to the left is of the view over Wyndham's Five Rivers Lookout)

As a young man he was known for his speed, training on the mudflats and sought after on local basketball teams. In later years, Roxanne tells ABC Kimberley Mornings, he always had his whistle on him so he could referee a game at the drop of a hat.

He died last month.

Last night the Shire of Wyndham East Kimberley voted to rename a Wyndham community centre in honour of Pastor Ted. Roxanne says he would be so excited to know of the Ted Hall Memorial Recreation Centre.

It's one thing to uncover the paper trail left in archives - it is quite another to travel to the place where your distant family member once lived.

Ruraka Minami came to Broome last week to connect with her Grandfather, a man she had never met.

Yasukichi Murakami came to Broome in the late 1880s and as well as his interests in pearling, he became a well known photographer. He died in a WW2 internment camp in Cowra. The whereabouts of his vast photographic collection, his legacy, and finding family who still live in Australia and Japan, has been a quest for fellow Japanese-Australian photographer and artist Mayu Kanamori.

For Ruraka, the trip to Broome has given her a greater understanding of what her Grandfather might have experienced. She's stood on the same beach that he did watching the emerald tide come and go, felt the hot, bright sun, and seen the Southern Cross at night.

"Broome is in my heart... it is my second home," she says. It is also the place where her mother was born; she is now aged 90 and lives in Wakayama precfecture, where so many Japanese have a connection to Broome.

It's Ruraka's second visit to the town, but on her first visit she simply didn't 'get' what her family's heritage was all about in this strange Australian place. Now, she says, she understands.

I have a new found appreciation for Arrested Development. Not the TV show; I never really got into that. I mean the hip-hop group which became really big big in the early 90's. Known for bringing a positive light to hip-hop music.

I saw them at WOMADelaide last weekend, and their awesome song People Everyday has been in my head ever since.

So my attention was grabbed yesterday when I heard about a poet out of Wyndham, Shaun Meehan, who was taking his music to new audiences on the East Coast this week.

Shaun is a former Oombulgurri resident now living in Wyndham. He's been working on developing his music and rhymes since 2012 with the program Grow the Music.

Like most poets and hip-hop artists, he has something important to say.

We spoke to Shaun on Kimberley Mornings today to hear about his vision, and why he's keen to break the cycle of alcohol and drug abuse he sees in his community.

Listen to the audio below to hear some of Shaun's work, and part of his conversation with Vanessa Mills.

"And out of the barrier leaps Killer Katie, closely followed by Big Buff, they're toxic gland to toxic gland as they head into the straight...."

The race call might not have the glamour of the Melbourne Cup, nor stop the nation, but it will be especially entertaining when Cane Toads start racing in Kununurra.

It's part of Australia Day celebrations and a fundraiser for the Kimberley Toadbusters, at the Grande on Sunday afternoon.

Jordy Groffen is the Bart Cummins of the fledgling cane toad racing industry. He's got some "big females" in his stable. Jordy has been training them to race in the inaugural event.

"They hop... and I have been experimenting with different tracks. They perform better in a circle, an arena, because with a square one they just go to the corners."

Jordy knows cane toads more intimately than most people. He's a biology researcher and has been studying the pest inside and out for several years now. The lungworm, which grows inside the toad, is the best hope of a biological control to slow the spread of the toad.

He jokes that the racing toads will be free of lungworm, and no doping is allowed either.

As to Silks, the identifying dress is a little unconventional.

"In Queensland they use condoms. They cut the top off and put it on the toad. I don't know we'll be doing that!"

But he is hoping that any toad which wins the overall championship on Sunday will end up stuffed and on the mantlepiece.